Quarterly Revenue Crosses 100 Trillion Won for First Time... KOSPI Recovers 6,000 Level

[Anchor]

SK Hynix has posted record-breaking earnings once again, with third-quarter revenue exceeding 100 trillion won for the first time. Driven by a surge in demand for AI semiconductors, the company is also pushing for shareholder returns amounting to 100 trillion won this year. The KOSPI has also recovered the 6,000 level.

Reporter Choi Seung-hun has the details.

[Reporter]

SK Hynix's revenue for the third quarter of this year came in at 104.6 trillion won.

It marks the first time that quarterly revenue has surpassed 100 trillion won.

This is more than four times the figure from the same period last year, and operating profit surged more than sevenfold to 83.3 trillion won.

This means the company generated 80 won in operating profit out of every 100 won in revenue, setting a new record for quarterly operating margin.

The stellar performance was driven by High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI and server memory.

Shipments of the new HBM4 accelerated, sales of server DDR5 surged significantly, and memory prices soared.

However, net profit plunged 58% from the previous quarter to 39.8 trillion won.

This reflected 11.6 trillion won in foreign exchange losses due to a falling exchange rate and 22.9 trillion won in valuation losses on investment assets.

SK Hynix projected that memory demand will outpace supply through 2030, fueled by expanding AI investments.

The company announced that it has secured supply volumes equivalent to more than half of its production capacity for 2027 and 2028 through long-term contracts with 14 major customers.

[Park Jun-deok / Head of DRAM Marketing, SK Hynix: Our DRAM and HBM supplies are effectively sold out for the next three years through 2029.]

In the fourth quarter, the company expects HBM4 to outpace HBM3E in both shipment volume and revenue.

It is also pursuing shareholder returns of approximately 100 trillion won this year, including cash dividends and share buybacks and cancellations.

Buoyed by the strong earnings, the shareholder return announcement, and rallies in U.S. semiconductor stocks, semiconductor shares surged.

At the closing bell, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics jumped 10.8% and 9%, respectively.

The KOSPI, which temporarily triggered a buy-side sidecar, closed at 6,012.44, recovering the 6,000 mark.

(Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.